Leftwich doesn't close Steelers' door
By Vito Stellino Story updated at 2:31 AM on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009
TAMPA - The longer Byron Leftwich soaks up the Super Bowl atmosphere this week, the more attractive the option of staying in Pittsburgh is looking to him.

On media day Tuesday, Leftwich talked about hitting the free-agent market and becoming a starter for another team.

By the time the media interviews ended Thursday, Leftwich wasn't ruling out the option of staying in Pittsburgh.

"Never count the Pittsburgh Steelers out of my equation because this year meant so much to me," he said.

"Everybody's always saying, 'well, you'll go here or you'll go there,' " he said. "What if I'm back in black and gold next year in the same situation? It's a situation that, ultimately, as much fun as I had, I know I could be happy with."

Although he added he didn't know if he could be happy not being a starter, he said, "I'll tell you man, this is a great organization, a great head coach, a great group of guys, and if I do move on, it's going to be tough because I've had so much fun."

Leftwich has spent the week giving the Steelers defense a look at how Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner plays and coach Mike Tomlin has been lavish in his praise of the quarterback's work on the scout team.

Even when Leftwich threw three interceptions in practice Thursday, Tomlin credited good play by the Steelers defense and not poor throws from Leftwich.

"I can't say enough about the quality of work we're getting from Byron Leftwich," Tomlin said.

Amazing what one season as a Pittsburgh Steelers family member can do to a person's opinion! This is not saying that he'll be back for sure, but it's good to know that he is at least thinking about coming back for the Black & Gold.

__________________
Ward, after being fined by Goodell on a play that was not penalized:

I would love to see him stay. Both times that he took over for Ben, I never even worried. He certainly deserves a starters job, but hey....if staying makes him happy, who are we to argue?

And I bet he did a great job preparing our D for Zona. It could be that practicing against Byron was one of the reasons our D performed so good this year. Pay the man to stay!

__________________"We're not going to turn our backs on him," Ward said. "We're going to treat him like our brother. We're going to accept him back and be very supportive of him and help him get through this. In this locker room, he's still our quarterback."